324 GRAMINE^J. Triticum. 



only above, with an awn nearly its own length or awnless. Agropyrum repens, 

 Beauv. ; Eeicherib. Icon. Fl. Germ. t. 120. 



San Francisco and elsewhere (Bolander) ; Oregon (Spalding) ; Washington Territory ( Cooper) ; 

 eastward to New England. A native of Europe and other temperate countries, also largely in- 

 troduced as a weed. This, which is known to cultivators as "Couch-" "Quack-" and "Quitch- 

 grass," is in its indigenous forms called "Blue-joint," "Bunch-grass," and "Lagoon-grass" by 

 western settlers and herdsmen. It appears to be much more abundant in the Rocky Mountain 

 region than farther west, and presents a great variety of puzzling forms, the difficulty in deter- 

 mining these being increased by the general lack of roots to the specimens. 



* * No running rootstock : palets and sometimes the glumes long awned. 



2. T. caninum, Linn. Culms 1 to 3 feet high, geniculate below : leaves flat 

 or loosely convolute, pubescent above and like the sheaths smooth below : spike 

 more or less nodding, at least not strict ; spikelets 3 - 6-flowered, mostly much 

 longer than the joints of the rhachis : glumes 5 - 7-nerved, with long awns or merely 

 acuminate : florets somewhat distant ; lower palet 5-nerved near the tip, with mostly 

 spreading awns twice their own length. Agropyrum caninum, Reichenb. Icon. Fl. 

 Germ. t. 119. Triticum cegilopoides, Gray in Proc. Phil. Acad. 1862, not Turcz. 



Big Trees, Calaveras County (Hillebrand) ; Carson's Pass, at 8,000 feet altitude (Brewer) ; fre- 

 quent in Colorado and Nevada, and eastward to New England. Like the preceding very variable, 

 and in European works several nominal species are made from forms of it. The only specimens 

 collected within the State referable to this species are mountain forms by Hillebrand and Brewer. 

 The latter is the same as 381 of Parry's Rocky Mountain collection of 1861, referred by Dr. Gray 

 to T. cegilopoides, Turcz., but later, in the account of Hall & Harbour's plants, placed as a variety 

 of T. caninum, differing from the type in its large and spreading usually much crowded spikelets 

 and its long stout divergent awn. Brewer's specimens show a tendency to sport ; in one or two 

 cases the spike is branched below, and the spikelets are generally loose-flowered and spreading ; 

 sometimes the glumes have an occasional tooth near the tip and the lower palet is minutely 

 2-toothed at the beginning of the awn, varying in these respects in the same spikelet. 



3. T. violaceum, Hornem. Culms slender, 1 to 2 feet high, and with the short 

 mostly convolutely-setaceous leaves and sheaths usually smooth : spike 1 to 3 inches 

 long, slender, strict and rigid ; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered, usually purple-tinged : glumes 

 with five strong rough nerves, short-pointed or briefly awned, nearly as long as the 

 florets : lower palet strongly 5-nerved and rough above, with an awn from one-half 

 as long to as long as itself ; upper palet as long as the lower and pectinately ciliate. 

 Anderss. Gram. Scand. 5, t. 1, f. 6. 



Silver Mountain Trail, at 8-9,000 feet altitude, Brewer. Occurs in the mountains of New 

 England and New York, and in a few other eastern localities. The color, sometimes quite marked, 

 is often nearly or quite lacking. 



4. T. strigosum, Lessing. Culms from 1 to 2 feet high, slender, very densely 

 tufted, with setaceous radical leaves half as tall, glaucous throughout ; culm leaves 3, 

 the uppermost 3 to 4 inches long, erect, reaching beyond the base of the spike, all 

 narrowly setaceously convolute, strigose-pubescent on the upper surface, below and 

 with the sheaths smooth or pubescent : spike 2 to 6 inches long, very slender ; spike- 

 lets 3 - 6-flowered, rather distant : glumes lanceolate, strongly 3 - 5-nerved, some- 

 what acute, shorter than the florets, slightly scabrous on the nerves : lower palet 

 4 or 5 lines long, smooth below, 5-nerved near -the apex and bearing a strong rough 

 divergent awn longer than itself ; upper about equal, retuse at apex and strongly 

 ciliate. Linnrea, ix. 170 ; Griseb. in Lecleb. Fl. Ross. iv. 339 ; Watson, Bot. King 

 Exp. 390. T. cegilopoides, Turcz. ; Gray in Proc. Acad. Phil. 1863, 79. Bromus. 

 strigosus, Bieb. Agropyrum divergens, Nees. 



Sierra County (Lcnvmori) ; apparently more abundant in the mountains of Nevada and Colorado ; 

 Asia Minor, etc. Our plant agrees sufficiently with the description drawn from eastern speci- 

 mens to place it here. In our plant the strigose pubescence is confined to the upper surface of the 

 leaves and entirely concealed by their convolution ; the glumes are shorter than described for the 

 eastern plant, and are often inequilateral, with nerves upon only one side of the midrib. Bo- 

 lander collected an abnormal form, with large spikelets, very distant on a flexuose rhachis, and 

 the, glumes awned or merely pointed in the same spike. 



